Mistrust between State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Chicago police union goes both ways

Kim Foxx on Wednesday fired back at Chicago police union officials who in a letter earlier this week said there is a “deep mistrust” between rank-and-file officers and Cook County’s top prosecutor.

In a letter to Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham, State’s Attorney Foxx wrote that she had doubts about the sincerity of the union’s concerns about her commitment to prosecuting crimes committed against police officers, and called out the union for not publicly denouncing purported white nationalists who stood among officers at a protest organized by the union in the spring.

The correspondence from Foxx comes after a conference call Wednesday morning with union leaders, to discuss complaints raised in a letter the FOP sent to Foxx, calling for her to appoint a special prosecutor to handle any criminal cases where a cop is the victim of a crime or has been accused of misconduct.

“I am always available to address the concerns of your members. However, I am once again left with the impression that your aim is simply to make news, not progress,” Foxx wrote in her letter.

Foxx expressed concerns that the union’s “public antics” had led to racist and misogynistic threats, and that she was frustrated that the union had made no statement about white nationalists who joined the April protest.

“You claimed you don’t support those behaviors, yet those individuals somehow find comfort in your camaraderie,” Foxx wrote.

Foxx states that her office has approved charges in 96% of cases in which a police officer is listed as a victim, and that 89% of those ended with a conviction. The letter does not go into detail as to whether those convictions were on lesser charges. A Foxx spokeswoman said Wednesday that the office has brought charges in some 2,000 cases where police officers were victims, most often for the count of aggravated battery of a police officer.

The exchange of letters is only the latest sign of a fraying of relations between Foxx and FOP leaders. After union leaders on Tuesday made their letter to Foxx public, CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson quickly issued a statement calling Foxx a “formidable partner” for the department’s fight against violence in Chicago.

The union has become increasingly vocal in its opposition to Foxx in the months since the state’s attorney’s office abruptly dropped criminal charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett for allegedly staging a hate crime near his Streeterville apartment. The decision drew an outraged response from Johnson and then mayor Rahm Emanuel, who filed a lawsuit against the actor seeking to recover some $130,000 spent on overtime for the officers who investigated the case.

A few days after the union staged their protest outside Foxx’s office in April, Foxx attended a rally at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and was on the stage as U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, denounced the FOP as the “sworn enemy of black people.” Union leaders cited that event as the basis to have Foxx replaced with a special prosecutor to handle a misdemeanor case against an activist accused of assaulting a police officer at demonstration. Foxx, who posed for a selfie with the activist Jedidiah Brown — who was also at the Rainbow PUSH rally — recused herself from the case.

Asked by the Chicago Sun-Times for a response to Foxx’s letter, FOP Second Vice President Martin Preib sent back a screenshot of the Brown-Foxx selfie from Brown’s Facebook page.